UK faces a surge in far-right terrorism

An armed policeman keeps watch near a police cordon near Finsbury Park, after a van collision incident in north London, Britain, 19 June 2017. According to the Metropolitan Police Service, police responded on 19 June, to reports of a major incident where a vehicle collided with pedestrians in Seven Sisters Road, in north London. One man was pronounced dead at the scene and at least eight people were injured, police said. The driver of the van, a 48-year-old man, has been detained. An investigation into the circumstances of the incident is being carried out by the Counter Terrorism Command. The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) commented on the incident saying that a van has run over worshippers outside the Muslim Welfare House (MWH), near the Finsbury Park Mosque. British Prime Minister Theresa May described the attack as a 'terrible incident.'

UK faces a surge in far-right terrorism

The UK’s MI5 counterterrorism agency and Scotland Yard have foiled four major far-right terrorist attacks over the last year, according to London’s Assistant Commissioner Mark Rowley.

A number of high profile attacks by the far-right have taken place over the last few years. There were five major far-right attacks in 2017, including a van that ploughed through a crowd of Muslim worshippers outside the Finsbury Park mosque in London last June. During the EU referendum campaign in June 2016, a far-right activist assassinated an MP opposed to the UK leaving the European Union.

With the far-right surging in many Western countries, the UK now fears that the number of networks will metastasise, particularly since the media’s attention generally focuses on the more frequent attacks of Islamic extremist groups.